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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Made to Move Barbie Review

Yes, I purchased the Made to Move Barbie dolls from Amazon.com. I decided that I like them so much, that I would do a review on them. I did purchase multiples of each of them so I would have them for body swapping. Some of my Flickr friends have blamed me for them not being able to get a doll, but I say, you snooze, you lose! Oh well, they will have more available soon!

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil

There are 3 versions of the Made to Move Barbies. Theresa has a tan skintone, Barbie has a medium caucasian skintone and Lea has a pale Asian skintone. According to the photos on the box, there will also be an AA skintone with the Asha facemold. Speculation is that she will have the Grace skintone. Overall, these dolls for me are a win-win. Their articulation is spectacular and I say to Mattel it is about time. The current dolls are an early release and have only been available on Amazon and eBay. From the Amazon Barbie Store, they were $14.99 each, and have sold out. There are still private sellers on Amazon and on eBay that have them, but they are asking between $30 to $75 for them. Because the official release of these dolls is supposed to be in January, I would recommend waiting, however, do keep your eyes open as there have been reports of them being available in some TRU stores at $14.99 and Amazon may get more in stock. If Mattel is smart, they will make them available in time for Christmas.As you can see from the above photo, they have very flexible joints. They are double jointed at both the elbows and the knees and have jointed ankles, thighs, upper arms and torso. I will show some picture later of them naked so you can see all of the points of articulation. The good news is that the joints are all nice and tight, the doll is sturdy and well constructed. The only negative I see so far is that the hair in the Lea and Barbie versions is extremely glue laden. I had a couple of them where the glue had dripped down the neck! When you take the head off of the prong, the prong is sticky with glue and there are chucks of glue that come out with it. So far, all of the Theresa molds that I opened did not have any glue at all in the head. I do hope that they remedy this problem for Lea and Barbie in the production release.I have done some comparisons to other jointed dolls that I have, which include a Barbie Style body, a Liv body and a PlayToy Action Figure body. I have tried to put each of them in a comparable pose, but as you will see, they could not all do every pose.Here you see each doll crossing her arms in front of her chest. Playtoy says she cannot get her arms close to her because she has such a large bosom (I gave her that one). Made to Move can not only cross her arms in front, but she can get them close to her body. Liv does a decent job, but she cannot get her arms as close to her chest as Made to Move. Barbie Style can cross them, but not tight to her chest. Made to Move is the winner in this category!

Next they tried putting their hands on their faces. This would be helpful for holding a phone to talk on it, for putting on make up or doing your hair! Made to Move can put her hands on her face, actually in many positions. Play Toy can also touch her face, but not at as low of a point on her face as Made to Move. Barbie Style, she says: "Ummm, this is giving me a headache!" as does Liv. Once again, Made to Move takes this point!

Excitedly, Made to Move shouts: "How about we get on the floor and do some yoga poses?!" Liv and Playtoy look at her and say, "What?! Are you nuts?!" and Barbie Style looks at her as says: "This will have to do!" Made to Move is grinning inside and whispers: "Yes! I win again!"

The next move is to sit on their legs on the floor. Barbie Style: "I stoop to noone!" and she just kneels. Made to move and Play Toy are pretty equal in this pose. Liv is pretty close, but cannot quite sit all of the way down. This one is a tie between Made to Move and Play Toy.

Warning: Dolly nudity!

Ok, if you are still with us, they are now posing nude so a comparison can be made based on the aesthetics of each doll's body.First up, we have Barbie Style. Her body appearance is very nice and smooth. Her joints are subtle and do not detract from her pleasant appearance. The Made to Move joints are much more obvious, but to me, I do not thing they detract from her appearance. Some find that the upper arm joint makes her look too muscular, but I actually find this look attractive as you can tell she takes care of her body and works out! The inside of her elbow joints are a little obvious, but not overly so. The joint I find the least attractive on her is the upper thigh joint, but the trade off of her ability to pose in so many positions make it worth it! Play Toy has a very attractive body. As with many Action Figures, her joints are more obvious, but the fact that you can exchange her hands and feet give her more expressive posing options. She can hold a drink, shoot a gun or even point at you! For me, the Liv body is probably the least aesthetically pleasing, however, it is a less mature body and is good to use for younger characters. I do like its versatility as a body exchange option.

Rear view! They are all fairly equal when looking at them from behind! The least noticeable knee joint is probably Barbie Style, then Liv, Made to Move takes third and Play Toy takes last place in this category. Only because the joints are more noticeable. However. I also find that Play Toy's elbow and wrist joints are somewhat less attractive than the others, but her butt is probably the most realistic and aesthetically pleasing butt! All in all, I will take the looks of these joints over not having any at all!

With that, Barbie Style, Play Toy and Liv bid us farewell and my very favorite poseable body gal stops in for a cameo appearance. The Phicen Stainless Steel skeleton body, to me, is by far the best poseable body around. However, at a pricetag of between $80 to $120, she is also the most expensive. Here she goes head to head with Made to Move on the merits of poseability:

My medium bust Phicen, Stephanie, pulls up a chair and invites Made to Move to curl up like her. Made to move can match her pose quite well!

Stephanie says: "Try this!" as she stretches out a bit in the chair. Once again, Made to Move excels at the challenged pose!

Stephanie says: "Not bad at all! Now get on the floor and do this!" Stephanie gets on the floor and pushes herself up with her arms and arches her back gracefully. Made to Move has a little difficulty arching her back, but Stephanie commends her on her ability in this area!

Stephanie is impressed with this $15 doll and her ability to pose. She does one more pose on the floor. This one she says is a magazine or book reading position. Made to Move thinks, "Yes, I can do this too!" but secretly she thinks she would rather read a book or magazine curled up on the couch next to a fireplace with some hot cocoa to drink!

Made to Move gets her street clothes back on and waits for her boyfriend to come and pick her up. I think she looks great in this outfit. She looks like a girl who takes care of herself and keeps her body toned. Her arms are shapely with a hint of muscularity. She is looking good!

Her boyfriend Liam also appreciates her efforts to stay healthy and look good. He, for one, is very happy she has joined him in Hanaly Corners!

Liam with his Made to Move sweetheart. He says, "Give her a name already!" I do hope you enjoyed my review and photos. Thanks for stopping by. I enjoy receiving your comments!

Made To Move is doing well. I'm waiting to get one at the correct price point, not the marked up one. She really stole the show for posing. And she has a boyfriend, even before she has a name. Well, for now he can call her, Honey or Sweetheart.

I am glad you enjoyed my post. This line is definitely doing well. I am excited about using this body in stories. I may have to make a yoga studio! Liam was lucky to get a name. I have been having trouble lately coming up with names. I have thought of some before I got to bed and them I forget them by morning!

Great review and photos, it was a fun contest to watch and read! They are added to my wish list, in the company of seamless Phicen! This Barbie will be a hit with collectors, but I bet kids will love her too!

It was fun posing the dolls for this! I am afraid some of my other dolls are jealous and some are demanding I give them one of the spare bodies! I hope you do get at least a few of them, and for sure at one Phicen! They are indeed fun to pose!

Thanks for the review. I for one, thank you for buying so many. I am so close to getting through the year with my 10 doll limit. This may have blown it. I can wait. So nice to see so much movement. A few of my ladies will be very happy. They will be able to talk on the phone properly for once. Liam is quite the cutie, too.

Well, Vanessa, it was difficult, but I was glad to take one for the team! I just wanted to support you in your buying limitations! LOL! Can't wait to see who would get this new body in your crew. They will definitely be a lot more scenes with phone calls now in Hanaly Corners!

Thanks, Jewell, glad you like my review. For me, I picked Liam as his name, well, because that is the actor's name after all! Even though I have purchased some extras of these bodies, I will definitely be getting more and hopefully, the AA doll with be out soon too, so I can get some of that body too!

Outstanding review. I agree with you on every point. *feeling happy* By the way, I do not care about the glue heads on these dolls because I am not a fan of their cartoony faces and all mine will be tossed. I find these dolls an inexpensive donor body option when I require flexibility. These dolls (sans heads) are an excellent blending of Fashion Doll and Action Figure. Well done, Mattel. You delivered!

Yay, I am glad we are in sync on this! I will also be using these mainly for body swaps, but since these dolls are targeted at young kids, I would not want a child of mine to play with them with a head full of glue that seeps out of it! So messy. I have scooped out a couple of these heads and was thinking about sending a bunch of the residue to Mattel customer service! Except for 1 Theresa, I have already given many of my dolls this new body and they are loving it!

Hi Phyllisthanks for this amazing post,sharing with us the details i love the dolls flexible joints.will add to my wish list ;-)have a nice weekendxx(...i deleted my first comment because i named you as April hahahaha,is the next blog i will visit,sorry..)

Hi Phyllis! I'm glad you did this review to show the different body types! I don't own any Style Barbies so I was curious about the comparisons. I just absolutely love my Teresa doll as well. I call her Brooke now (after Brooke Shields, lol.) and I actually really like the way her arms look so fit and muscular. Over the past few months I have gotten back into Barbie collecting and can't wait to get a few more of these to swap out with my pretty Fashionistas. As long as they stay $14.99 then they are by far more worth it than a Style body in my opinion! I still love Liv, but it was cool to see how much better MTM bodies can actually kneel and touch their faces. I just love these dolls. It's a shame to hear about the glue issue with the other too, but as you said, hopefully it will resolved by the time the official release happens. "Teresa" and Liam look so cute and snuggly together! True love :)

Thanks and I am happy you enjoyed my review. I had some fun with it! I was thinking of naming my Teresa Brooke as well for the very same reason! I think we will be seeing more of these bodies for sure. I know this body is supposed to be on the Wonder Woman doll too.

I was wondering about these dolls but have not been able to find them. I was wondering if I had blinked and they sold out that quickly. Relieved to know they haven't debuted yet. Thank you for this comparison!

Hi Phyllis, I am so happy for you.Me I search for these dolls. And I cannot find them at the regular price. Do you know if we could find them in Toys R Us or Walmart ???? in 2016 ??? I want the pink doll one so much !!!!

These dolls are supposed to be officially out in January 2016, so I would expect to see them in stores. I have seen the AA one on the Target.com website, but not available for shipping and not available at any of my local Target stores. A few people have posted that they got one at either a Target or at TRU, so chances are good that they will be available at a store near you soon!

I am so glad my review convinced you to buy one of these. I saw your post and am so happy that you like her as much as I do! I picked up the AA version at Target today. She has the Asha facemold and her skintone looks like it is a close match for Grace.

Hi Phyllis -- thanks for directing Muff here for your review of the Made to Move Barbies. I haven't purchased any. I saw them at Walmart last week and was tempted to get the AA one but passed (you know I'm on a doll-buying hiatus). The next time I see her, I might buy based on your review. These girls can move!

The other reason that prevented me from buying is Mattel's use of the Asha sculpt for the AA one. Why did that dig out that sculpt? Geesh, they could have used a more contemporary head sculpt for the AA doll. Asha is pretty but was so overused in the past that I tire of seeing her.

About Me

I have always loved Barbie dolls. I got my first doll at the age of 8 or 9 and she was a platinum bubble cut Barbie. As an adult, I have discovered the world of doll collecting and playing with them as an adult through several doll blogs. My interests now have expanded beyond Barbie to Fashion Royalty, Mixis, Pretty Girls and other 1:6 scale dolls and action figures. I am also an avid crafter and can sew, so I have been incorporating these hobbies into my doll world as well. I am happy to share my collection through photographs and stories on my blog.